Professor Emeritus Akira Suzuki, a Nobel Prize laureate, gave a lecture to Chinese high school students on July 25th, 2017. The students visited Hokkaido University as a part of the “Sakura Science High School Program” sponsored by the Japan Science and Technology Agency.

The “Sakura Science High School Program” invites excellent high school students from Asian countries and provides opportunities for them to see Japan’s state-of-the-art technology and to interact with outstanding scientists. This time, 35 Chinese students and 7 teachers visited the university. In addition, 25 students attended the lecture from Sapporo Kaisei Secondary School which is designated as a Super Global High School.

Professor Emeritus Suzuki spoke on his Nobel Prize award winning research on the “Suzuki Coupling Reaction” and its wide range of applications in a lecture titled “An Example of Useful Science: Organic Synthesis by Organoboron Coupling Reaction.” He also presented photographs of the Nobel Prize Ceremony. Specially Appointed Associate Professor Yasunori Yamamoto from the Faculty of Engineering chaired the event.

The students listened attentively to the lecture, which was followed by a Q&A session. Students asked about the future of science and the key to thinking of great ideas amongst other questions. These questions were welcomed and answered by the Professor Emeritus as he cheered on the future scientists.